A Walk All Around the England Coast

On 19 March, King Charles III declared the England Coast Path, to which his name was appended in 2023, officially open. For those of us trying to complete the route it has been a long time coming. The first section of the path opened between Lulworth and Weymouth in June 2012, and my own relationship with this 2,700-mile route began in June 2014, when the first sections in the north opened.

I had the idea to produce the first series of guidebooks to the whole route after a chance conversation with someone who works for Natural England and was involved in the inception of the route. So I headed off to walk fifty miles on the Durham coast and thirty miles in west Cumbria. I was immediately struck by the variety of scenery on the English coast and its ability to throw up surprises at every turn. Between Sunderland and Newcastle there is a series of impressive stacks standing proud of the limestone cliffs. Moving south, the delightful beaches and denes of the Durham coast are backed by reminders of the coal-mining industry that once turned the sand black (think the final scene of Get Carter).

Moving to west Cumbria, the stretches of coast around Maryport, Allonby and Silloth were new to me. I found this gentle part of the Solway coast to be wonderfully quiet, and as I navigated the lonely dunes I had a view of Criffel in southern Scotland.

As I headed south, industry again came to dominate the landscape around Workington and Whitehaven. What it revealed was quite beguiling. The artificial hill of Derwent Howe is formed of spoil from the Moss Bay Steelworks, and where it has been eroded by the sea it has formed the most extraordinary cliffs, with arches created in the black waste north of the River Derwent.

It’s fascinating that two of the most industrial parts of the north’s coastline were the first to open for this is the great strength of the England Coast Path. It doesn’t pick and choose the most popular parts of the coast; the commitment is to make the whole coastline accessible. It matters that people in all parts of the country have access to the nation’s shoreline, and hopefully this route will bring more people to some of the under-appreciated areas. This brings us back to the present and some of the most recently opened sections, particularly around the intricate peninsulas of south Cumbria. A path between Askham and Sandscale Haws wasn’t officially opened when I was walking it, so there were no visitors, although locals were making great use of the charming new path along the wooded crest above the sands of the Duddon estuary. Dog walkers and families were enjoying the bluebells and I realised that the coast path is far from existing just for the long-distance walker.

In the intervening twelve years, walking and producing my series of guidebooks has taken me to every corner of the country. It’s part of the appeal of the whole project. Walking through Sussex or Suffolk I’ve been able to explore some areas I’d never otherwise visit. There are a few occasions on which I have grown tired of walking along interminable sea walls around endless flat marshes in parts of Lincolnshire and Essex, but on the whole I found most of the experience energising and looked forward to my next trip away. As we came out of Covid lockdown I found myself in the south west with a new-found appreciation of every opportunity to explore this varied landscape of our small island.

Though I may have started in the north, it has been frustrating that it has taken longest to finish my book on the north coasts (combining both the north west and north east in a single volume). The justifiably well-known parts of the North Yorkshire, Northumberland and the Wirral coasts have now been complemented by entirely new paths around west Cumbria, Lancashire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. Though there are still a few gaps in the trail, the whole of the north-east coast is accessible and you can now enjoy access to the great variety of scenery afforded by our coastline. There is no better way to see it than on foot – you avoid the busy roads, awkward parking and overrun honeypots for the quiet spaces where the sea opens out and birds soar overhead.